One of the most explosive political dramas of the modern era is the subject of an international bestseller to be featured in this year’s Jersey Festival of Words.
Did Vladimir Putin’s Russia conspire to influence the 2016 US presidential election in favour of Donald Trump? That alarming question is at the heart of ‘Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House’ by Luke Harding, the award-winning foreign correspondent who was the Guardian’s bureau chief in Moscow from 2007 to 2011.
Luke Harding will be on stage at Jersey Opera House on Saturday 29 September to talk about his investigation into the true nature of Trump’s decade-long relationship with Russia. It began after a meeting with former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, whose dramatic dossier alleged that the Kremlin had been ‘cultivating, supporting and assisting’ the future President for years.
It is an issue with huge implications for international relations, the rapidly developing debate over ‘fake news’ and the whole future of cyberspace.
Celebrated espionage novelist John Le Carré said of Collusion: “A superb piece of work, wonderfully done and essential reading for anyone who cares about his country.’ Professor Richard Dawkins, a star of last year’s Jersey Festival of Words, has called it: ‘Utterly damning. Devastating. Meticulously, scrupulously researched. Mesmerising.”
As well as his posting in Moscow, Luke Harding has reported from Delhi, Berlin, Afghanistan and Iraq. His other books include The Snowden Filesand A Very Expensive Poison, about the murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.
The fourth Jersey Festival of Words takes place at venues around the Island from Wednesday 26 September to Sunday 30 September.
Once again, it will feature a wide range of star authors in all genres, more of whom will be announced soon, as well as a platform for local writers and a big programme for schools.
